A surgical bone cutting instrument, for example for preparing for the fitting of a hip prosthesis, works in a medium which causes considerable fouling of the instrument and the instrument holder. Moreover, a surgical instrument holder must be cleaned very frequently and very carefully in order to avoid any risk of infection. However, cleaning of surgical instruments is difficult, in particular cleaning of the space between the shank and the locking component on account of the presence of bone debris and coagulated blood.
Further, in minimally invasive surgical procedures, the surgeon very often first inserts the surgical cutting tool through an incision in an orientation such that it does the least amount of damage to soft tissue upon passing through to the site of its intended use. Then the surgeon inserts the driving tool and connects it to the cutting tool inside the body cavity as a final assembly operation. For removal, it is preferable to reverse the procedure. However, there are instances where it would be advantageous to be able to quickly and easily remove the driving tool from the work site while the surgical tool remains in situ in the body. Particularly where the patient is obese or where the anatomical object to be treated is deep within the body, the above-mentioned prior art devices require that the surgeon remove the surgical cutting tool from the body through the incision while the drive handle is still attached to it.
Therefore, what is needed is a surgical instrument holder that provides a mode of operation that permits easy removal and reinstallation of the tool driver and surgical tool while deep in a body cavity.